Improvement in car-couplings



NETED STATES PATENT CEEICE.

JOHN J. LAPPIN, OF TORONTO, CANADA.

IMPRovx-:MENT IN onu-couFunes.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 156,889, dated November 17, 1874; application filed July 2, 1874.

To all whom Ait may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN JOSEPH LAPPIN, of the city of Toronto, in the county of York, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented new and useful Improvements in Oar-Couplers 5 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, whereby others skilled in the art may make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to this specification.

My invention consists in constructing or casting the draw-head with a concave dome above the usual outer top line or surface of the draw-head, within which to suspend a pendulous trip at a point about in or above such line, in order that the trip, when so hung, may have a long leverage between such point of suspension and the point where the bolt shall rest upon it before being tripped by the action of the coupling-link against the trip, whereby the bolt shall promptly drop, and the coupling be :promptly effected as soon as practicable after the bight or bend of the link has passed beyond the bolt, and combining with it a trip spanning a tube or downward projection from such dome, such tube serving to support and guide the bolt in a vertical direction.

The operation of my self-adjusting or automatic trip is such that, when the trip has been pushed inward from its vertical position by the inner end of the coupling-link in the process of coupling, and the coupling has been effected, the trip, during the period in which the cars remain coupled, rests against the side of the coupling-pin, and in such a position as to be secure from injury in consequence of any jolting of the link 5 and on the uncoupling again taking place, the trip, being now at liberty, by means of its own gravity, swings back .to its normal position, being again ready for the coupling-pin, which it will sustain in position, and readyto fall on recoupling the car.;

I" construct my self-acting trip somewhat in the character or form of a pendulum forked at the top, the forks being connected by cross bar, having a downward projection, piece, or bar at its bottom, against which the link acts at the period of its entrance inside the draw-head in the act of coupling, the pointof suspension of the trip being at as high a point as practicable, and the trip, when pushed inward, by reason of its leverage and position, quickly freeing itself from the bolt, causing the pin or bolt to drop within the link about at the instant that the thickness of the bend of the bolt has passed the bolthole.

In the accompanying drawings the sameV letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the views, and also in this specification.

Figurel is a plan of that portion of the draw-head in which is placed the mechanism comprising my invention, and is marked A; also, the enlargement or dome on top, marked E. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same portion of draw-head A, with the automatic pendulous trip B in two positions, and showing the coupling-pin C and couplinglink F. Fig. 3 is a front view of the aforesaid trip B and coupling-pin (l. Fig. 4 is a plan of the same portion of draw-head A, with enlargement E on the top of the same, in which is hinged the automatic pendulous trip B. It is in two positions, and constructed with the joint or hinge in front of the coupling-pin O, simplifying and improving in this form the construction of the device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same portion of draw-head A, showing enlargement E and hinged trip B in ont of coupling-pin (l.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 5, it will be seen that the automatic pendulous trip B is constructed somewhat in the form of a pendulum, hinged at its top at a point about in or above the usual top line of the draw-head, and free to swing in an inward direction when pushed in this direction by the coupling-link F of a car in the process of coupling, and that in being so pushed the cross-bar c of the trip B, because of its high point of suspension, and consequently long leverage, quickly slips from below the coupling-pin C, and will cause it to fall inside the link F, and thereby complete the process of coupling. It will also bev seen from these figures that, as soon as the link F is removed from the draw-head A, the

trip B wilLswing back by its own gravity to ing its dome or enlargement E, of the penduits normal position, and is, therefore, a selflons trip B, suspended within or near the baseaeting or automatic trip. line of such dome, and spanning the tube or I am aware that trips or stirrnps have been downward projection, in which is the bolt-hole,

used to sustain the bolt vertically, until reas set forth.

leased by the entrance of the link. This,

therefore, I do not claim; but J' J' LAPPIN What I do claim as new, and desire to secure Witnesses: by Letters Patent, is J. W. BULL,

The combination, with the draw-head, hav- VILLIAM GILL. 

